Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday his ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party would block any attempt to extend a partial moratorium on settlements due to expire on September 26. But the Palestinians warned that failure to extend the 10-month halt to most new settlement construction in the West Bank outside annexed Arab east Jerusalem would spell the end of peace talks relaunched with great fanfare in Washington on Thursday.
Lieberman insisted "there is no need to extend the freeze" in an interview with Israeli army radio. "Yisrael Beitenu has enough power in the government and in parliament to ensure that no such proposal succeeds," he said. The ultra-nationalist party led by the tough-talking Soviet-born Lieberman is the second largest faction in the governing coalition after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, which also opposes any extension.
On Sunday, Lieberman reportedly brushed off the latest round of talks, from which he has been largely sidelined. "I do not believe that a comprehensive agreement with the Palestinians is possible within a year, nor even during the next generation," he told Yisrael Beitenu members at a party function, according to army radio.
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